quarter replacement questions

[marty69212]

well guys i finally dove in and cut off my driver side quarter panel... getting ready for replacement. i have a couple of technical questions: how is the quarter attached to the car at the roof drip edge, i cant see any place where there could be welds, i thought that they were just seem sealed right there.. whats the deal ?
also inner structer behind quarter where rear side window is.. its rusty at the bottom, does anyone make patch panels for the inner structure or do i have to fab something for this rust bucket?
also when replacing the quarter, there is an inner structure piece that goes behind the quarter at the door latch, do you leave this connected to the car or drill the spot welds and attach it to the new quarter before installation? hope you guys can help, this is my first attempt at body work and i do not want to f-up my baby!!!!!any help would be greatly appreciated .. thanks

[HILROD]

The inner structure stays at the door jam, The drip edge has spotwelds under the seam sealer. Some cars have a lot of welds there, some have less. Usually you cvan see the welds better fron the bottom side. I don't think anyone sells the inner parts seperate.

[marty69212]

how do you get a drill in there to drill those spot welds? if i reember right, my new quarter doesnt lay flat in the gutter... whats up?

[Jim Nilsen]

The drip rail is attached to the roof panel and the part of the sail panel on the rear with a seam welder, it is a resistance weld and not spots. I removed my quarter panel from the roof drip with a cutoff wheel very carefully after cleaning all of the seam sealer off of it. The quarter panel will tuck up under the roof panel after all of the spot welds are removed. It doesn't sound like you have found the actual seam in the sail panel yet or you would have dicovered the lead. You can remove the lead with a simple propane torch. Make sure you remove the paint and the primer back far enough to not burn it and make sure you do all of this in a well ventilated place and still wear a respirator when doing it. Always wear a mask when working with lead and good gloves too.

Be careful to not mess up the corner brace that is inside and attached with 2 spot welds to the door jamb and down on the rocker,the brace is at a 45 degree angle and is visible from inside . Study all of this before you just start to hack away and you will be thankfull later. patience will save you time later. Whittle away at areas by removing the face of the panel so you can get in places with grinders and drills to remove spot welds. Take a lot of pics as you go along so you don't forget.
Also make sure you don't destroy the inner trunk piece that holds your weatherstrip,it is attached to the rear panel and the panel from the trunk to the rear window.

Any questions you have just ask. Make sure you some bandaids around because you will need one sooner or later.

Have fun and remember it's just a car and that little spot weld isn't going to kick your a$$

[marty69212]

ive rought cut the quarters out. i haved all the lead out and when i was cutting, i thought that the quarter was just seem sealed to the drip edge, but obviously not, so i just cut it about an inch back from the drip rail for now , so i could get most of the quarter off and see what ive go tthere ... i still really dontunderstand the weld your talkin about in the drip edge to quarter, do i drill out from the bottom of the drip edge or grind in the gutter?

[HILROD]

There are welds along the drip-edge, that are oval looking and usually spaced very close together. While I am not sure how they are made, they can be drilled out, from the bottom up or the old quarter can be ground off with a cut off wheel. I usually use a combination of both. If you drill, you can reweld thru those holes when going back together.

[marty69212]

thanks for all the help guys!!! so far , so good!!!!

[Jim Nilsen]

Think of it like a rolling spot welder. If you looked real close at mine you could see the knurling effect on both sides of the spot that looked like it was squeezed and used as the drive for the proper speed.

[marty69212]

what do you guys do when reinstalling the new quarter?

[Jim Nilsen]

I drilled holes in the drip rail and then plug welded the quarter panel to the drip rail from the easy side to get to and then ground down the weld to look right. I think I put 12 or so plug welds in since they are small. I think I had to go smaller than a 1/4 bit but bigger than 3/16.

Practice on a test piece before you go to the car to make sure you have the right heat range and some practice.

[marty69212]

thanks for all the help guys.!!! comin along good!!!!

[aussiebj]

I am replacing my quater panel as well i could sure use some pics of this area, i wll add pics of mine as i go along as well for anyone else ...thanks

[marty69212]

ok guys i have my drivers quarter off and found the driver rocker to be pretty pitted on the top where the quarter filled with water ... i asked on another site and they said to put my new quarter on, then install a new rocker.. i dont see ho thats possible... should i go ahead and replace the outer rocker now? whats the best way ?

[aussiebj]

i replaced my outer rocker first so i would be able to tell how far out the qtr would sit at the seam on the bottom....

[marty69212]

do you have any more detailed photos of that rocker install? did u trim the repop rockers front and back ? or did you put it in complete? give me some pointers... my rockers shoul dbe here by the weekend!!!!

[evan]

If you sign up on Stacey David's site for his new show "Gearz" you can watch the first episode online which is all about replacing body panels.
http://www.gearztv.com/index.php?content=shows

[aussiebj]

hers a pic of the rocker removed the hardest part is reattaching the inner braces

[aussiebj]

If you look at the top pic of the rocker two posts up you can see i trimmed it around the qtr post and then welded it back in the next pic shows it cleaned up i just thought this was the way to go for me........

[aussiebj]

Hers a pic of the other side, i am going to install both inner and outer rockes first i will trim the inner but use the outer as a full piece, oh by the way all my repair panels are goodmark and i am happy so far with the fit

[marty69212]

thanks for all the input dude!!!! u have got some serious work ahead of you !!!! durn , that thing is rough!!! i though mine was bad!!!! thanks again!!! i fell much better about what im doing now and a whole lot better about the condition of my car !!!!